The Taming of the Shrew

William Shakespeare

Act I, scene i

Act II, scene i

Summary: Act I, scene ii

A brash young man named Petruchio, newly arrived in Padua,
goes with his servant Grumio to see Hortensio, whom he knows from Verona.
Grumio and Petruchio become embroiled in a comic misunderstanding
at the door, but eventually Hortensio comes down to greet Petruchio
and ask why he is in Padua. Petruchio responds that, upon his father’s
death, he set out to look for a wife, hoping to marry a rich man’s
daughter and thereby augment his family fortune. Hortensio, determined
to find a potential suitor for Katherine so that he himself may
marry Bianca, recognizes his opportunity and decides to convince
Petruchio to marry the shrew. Being a friend, he first tries to
offer a warning about her, but Petruchio does not care about her
behavior. He pays attention to one thing only—the fact that she
has a rich father. Full of confidence, he tells Hortensio to lead
him to the shrew. Hortensio, for his part, plans to disguise himself
as a schoolmaster so that he can court Bianca secretly.

Gremio and Lucentio enter on their way to Baptista’s
house, interrupting Hortensio and Petruchio. Lucentio has already
disguised himself as a schoolmaster and has presented himself to
Gremio, who gladly agrees to have him tutor Bianca. Gremio brags
to Hortensio that he has found a schoolmaster for Bianca, unaware
of the fact that Lucentio will be courting the girl himself. Hortensio then
tells Gremio the good news—that Petruchio wishes to woo Katherine.
Gremio can hardly believe it, but Petruchio confidently claims that
he will be victorious.

At this point, Tranio enters, disguised as Lucentio,
with Biondello as his servant. He very conspicuously asks the suitors
to direct him to the house of Baptista Minola, vaguely implying
that he might be interested in one of the women there. Hortensio
and Gremio have a hard time restraining their anger, for now there
will be three competing suitors for Bianca. Lucentio, of course,
has arranged for Tranio to make this entrance in order to distract
Hortensio and Gremio and give him more time for his own wooing.
Tranio persuades the suitors that they can all be friends while
they compete for Bianca, and he wins their good graces by offering
to buy them a drink. The whole company considers this an excellent
suggestion, and they all depart together.

Analysis : Act I, scene ii

The reader is bombarded in the first half of the scene
by Petruchio’s overbearing personality. Several character traits
rapidly reveal themselves: he is quick to anger but also quick to
laugh, as he displays in his frequent quarreling with his servant
Grumio. He has a coarse personality, but he is educated well enough
to spout classical references and has a quick wit. Also, he loves
money above all else, which explains his enthusiasm for courting
Katherine. As Grumio remarks, if given enough gold, Petruchio would
happily marry a puppet, a clothing ornament, or a toothless hag
with venereal diseases. These are superficial motives, to be sure,
but Petruchio proclaims them proudly, and Shakespeare uses his proclamations
to introduce another dimension to the play’s exploration of marriage: the
idea that marriage is essentially an economic activity, intended to
consolidate fortunes and facilitate the distribution of inheritances.
Petruchio, having been left some money by his own father, knows
that he can strike it rich if he allows himself to be “bought” as
a husband.

Money is not Petruchio’s only driving force.
As more characters warn him about Katherine’s harsh tongue, he begins
to view wedding her as a challenge rather than simply a moneymaking opportunity.
Living with the shrew, he says, could not possibly be worse than
enduring the hardships of war or the sea. Gremio says that subduing
Kate would be a heroic challenge, comparing the task to one of the
labors of Hercules, even as he discourages Petruchio from undertaking
it. In their minds, Katherine has apparently transformed from an
insubordinate woman into either a monster in need of subjugation
or a tempest that has to be withstood. In fact, they give her the
title “Katherine the curst” (I.ii.122). The
more the men talk about her, the worse the report of her behavior
becomes.

In her absence, Katherine’s situation becomes
a bit clearer. People talk about her more than they listen to her,
and the more people gossip about her, the more they dislike her.
She wields her tongue to defend herself in the only way she can,
but this only earns her greater disrepute. After all, in the earlier
scene between Katherine and the two suitors, Katherine becomes angry
after Gremio insults her, although we do not know what transpired before
their entrance onstage. At any rate, this scene clarifies the general
bias of the men and elicits some sympathy for Katherine. In many
ways, the men are more interested in competing in tests of machismo
and going to the pub than they are in the thoughts or feelings of
the women whom they wish to woo.

Lucentio is a very kind and obedient servant. He agrees to every thing that his master Lucentio says. Lucentio's father had told Tranio to take good care of his master while in Padua [ Lucentio had come to study at a famous university, but he fell in love with Bianca later ]. Since Tranio is aware of his master's love Bianca( the youngest daughter of Baptista Minola ), he helps him [Lucentio] in all ways possible.

Katherina and Bianca are like the north pole and south pole. They both have different characteristics and different natures.

KATHERINA:- Katherina is Baptista Minola's eldest daughter. She is an intolerable, curst, ill favored and shrewd young lady. She is famous in Padua for her scolding tongue. She is so "wild", unpleasant and hot tempered that no man wants to marry her. She thinks her father loves her sister Bianca more than he loves her. Katherina does not care about marriage and does not want any man to love her. She is disliked... Read more→

Petruchio is late for his wedding. All the family members and guests are worried about the fact if he is coming or not.
[Note: this is just an overview of the topic]

Petruchio comes dressed up in a new hat, an old jerkin, a pair of old breeches (that were turned thrice), a pair of boots, with a broken hilt an chapless, and with two broken points. Even his horse was looking messed up. The horse was hipped-- with an old mothy saddle and some stirrups of no kindred-- besides, possessed with the glanders and like to mose in chine; t... Read more→